Blooming Afghanistan: Art, Hope and Resistance Take Centre Stage in Geneva
For three days, the voices and visions for Afghanistan have filled Geneva, through the engagement of Afghan human rights defenders, and the creation by Afghan artists, from the halls of the United Nations to a sold-out Victoria Hall. The Blooming Afghanistan initiative by the World Organisation Against Torture and partners brought together artists, human rights defenders and international experts to show that even under the Taliban's severe restrictions, Afghan artists continue to create, resist and be heard.
An exhibition and a song for freedom
The programme started on the 6th September, with a day that brought Afghan human rights defenders and civil society actors to discuss the new UN Independent Investigative Mechanism.
It was followed by the launch of the Blooming Afghanistan exhibition at the Palais des Nations on 7 September, featuring works by Afghan women artists created both inside Afghanistan and in exile. Alongside paintings, memorialisation pieces, digital installations and storytelling, the launch connected artists in Kabul directly with the audience in Geneva.
To close the exhibition opening, artist Arash Barez performed a song he had composed especially for the occasion, dedicated to freedom. The piece set the emotional tone for the concert held at Victoria Hall the following evening, where he closed the show with the same song, bringing the two events full circle.
The exhibition opening brought together the OMCT Secretary General Stéphanie David; Alexandra Xanthaki, UN Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights; and Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, alongside Afghanistan's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Nasir A. Andisha, and artists joining online from inside Afghanistan.
A sold-out night at Victoria Hall
On 8 September, Victoria Hall - one of Geneva's largest and most prestigious concert venues, seating over 1,500 people - hosted a panel discussion on the role art can play in preserving civic space under repression, followed by a concert with Arash Barez & the Aseman Ensemble, featuring Dawood Pezhman live. Free tickets to the concert sold out.
The hall drew a large presence of the Afghan community from all over Switzerland, who came together for an evening dedicated entirely to them: to their cultural heritage and to an identity that has come under sustained pressure since 2021. For many in the audience, the concert was more than a performance: it was an affirmation that Afghan culture endures, wherever it is practised.
The panel discussion brought together Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan; Sanjay Sethi, Director of the Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI-ILA); Anne-Laure Berson, Director of the Embassy of Foreign Artists; Marshal Arman, Afghan-Swiss musician and artist; Nasir Ahmad Rahguzar, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Women Online University of Afghanistan; Negina Yari of HRD+, Window for Hope; and a representative from Artists at Risk.
Why it matters
Since retaking power in 2021, the Taliban’s repression has shrunk Afghanistan’s once rich civic life and has imposed a near-total ban on music and public artistic expression. Musical instruments have been publicly burned, and musicians, as well as visual artists who continue to perform and create art, risk arrest, violence and torture.
Women face particularly harsh restrictions: barred from singing or dancing in public, and largely erased from cultural life alongside the wider bans on their education, work and freedom of movement. Many artists have fled the country; those who remain often create and perform in secret.
Against this backdrop, Blooming Afghanistan offered a rare platform for Afghan artists and human rights defenders to speak directly to audiences in Geneva and beyond, a reminder that art, even under repression, remains a space where Afghan identity and dissent can be voiced.
The event was organised by OMCT together with Human Rights Defenders Plus, the Civil Society & Human Rights Network, the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, Dialogue Hub – Common Ground, and the Artistic Freedom Initiative, with the support of the Embassy & Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Geneva, the Swiss Confederation, and several other partners.
